I have been playing this game for around 5 months. I have had a really hard time finding a class that I enjoy playing but finally I have. My hunter is the only class I have where I can actually play, survive and have fun without needing a merc (most of the time). I come from a long line of games where I hated hunters. But I am doing like 6k damage on many of my shots at level 70. I don't have good gear just the junk from quests and the nice mastercrafted bow from the research assistant.

Are there any other classes that have high damage and survivability? All of my other characters are complete drags to play because they either do next to 0 damage or can't take a hit or most commonly both. (my other classes are Warden, Gardian, Troubador, Shadowknight, Bruiser, Warlock and Necromancer)

To those classes defense only my Warden is high level and he is a great healer but does nearly 0 damage so with my swashy merc he does fine but the merc is very pricy at level 86 so i prefer not to use one continuously. And to disagree what I've heard alot Plat is not easy to come by for me thus far. I use every bit of it for crafting and decorating as fuels are very spendy. But I have no topped out people yet (this game is vanguard slow to raise adventuring levels for me hehe).

I've found my brigand very easy to solo. With all the stuns and stifles they've got, it's not hard for them to get behind mobs when soloing and get in their big attacks.

For your warden... if you spec your warden for melee, set your auto attack for forced melee, you'll find that your warden can put out some very respectable damage. Once you get to the 80s and 90s, reforge all the 'spell weapon stuff' to melee stats.. multi-attack, attack speed, etc.. You'll find your warden will be able to do 40-80k damage without too much difficulty.

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I'm willing to suspend my disbelief, But not hang it by the neck until dead.

While fun is completely subjective, if you are having issues with damage & survivablity on Warden, Shadowknight & bruiser, then I must say you just didn't have the right set up for the class. All three can do very good damage and have VERY good survival. I've played all of those classes recently in the 20-50 levels and really had no issues at all, even in poor gear (without mercenaries, with mercenaries they should be perfectly capable of pretty much tearing up any non epic content pre-90).

Warlock also has excellent damage and decent survivability if you go into things knowing you are wearing a night gown not heavy armor and pull accordingly. You also need to choose appropriate

Necro, they have the pet that is supposed to take damage but it doesn't do a good job of tanking to be honest early on in my experience.

I've found my brigand very easy to solo. With all the stuns and stifles they've got, it's not hard for them to get behind mobs when soloing and get in their big attacks.

For your warden... if you spec your warden for melee, set your auto attack for forced melee, you'll find that your warden can put out some very respectable damage. Once you get to the 80s and 90s, reforge all the 'spell weapon stuff' to melee stats.. multi-attack, attack speed, etc.. You'll find your warden will be able to do 40-80k damage without too much difficulty.

Haha yep you know that I'm going all elemental on my Warden only because I was treating him like a Druid since it seemed to be what they are in this game. I thought he would be too squishy to get in the battle as he does lose health rapidly once he starts getting hit. I will test out respec into melee. I was initially going to do that but found him to be too squishy. What about stats on melee do I still go WIS or does it switch to agil or str? I get confused on those stats since you only seem to get STA and 1 other stat...kind of dull doing it that way...What happened to Int helping with spell power and Wis helping with Mana Pool and Str helping with melee hits and Agi helping with dodging? Did they remove some of the fighting depth in this game? Just never seen it so simplified and boring in a game before...

Thanks so much for the advice on this...I am sure my hunter will be putting 10k+ damage in the 80's but 40k is kinda hard to imaging hehe...

While fun is completely subjective, if you are having issues with damage & survivablity on Warden, Shadowknight & bruiser, then I must say you just didn't have the right set up for the class. All three can do very good damage and have VERY good survival. I've played all of those classes recently in the 20-50 levels and really had no issues at all, even in poor gear.

Warlock also has excellent damage and decent survivability if you go into things knowing you are wearing a night gown not heavy armor and pull accordingly. You also need to choose appropriate

Necro, they have the pet that is supposed to take damage but it doesn't do a good job of tanking to be honest early on in my experience.

Glad you are enjoying your ranger though =).

Yep it is probably true I don't know how to play those classes because I've heard that SK is high damage...I don't have a real issue surviving with him (I got him to 47 on double xp weekend) but he isn't impressing me with damage thus far...and he does need a merc out alot of the time.

My warlock is a mana hog and i run out of mana every battle. That one I don't understand as my Warden can cast 1 million spells and not run out of mana...The damage is okay but once out of mana he's in dire straights.

I like my necro okay...was hoping he would be able to heal since my necro merc seems to but maybe that's later down the road...He's only 21 so far...

Bruiser is okay he is also low only 21.

I think I am just comparing everyone to my hunter...I only rolled a hunter because my gard did more damage on his bow than with his hits...so I thought...well maybe a hunter will be massive damage since they specialize in bows...

My play style...I like to kill things fast and survive...I do mostly solo yes. I just like a powerful character. If it takes me forever to kill then it's less fun for me...That's just my playstyle.

By hunter do you mean ranger? Wardens don't have the defensive skills of a tank but you can just keep throwing in your healing spells between melee attacks to stay alive. I find my warden is quite difficult to get killed. Of course he won't do the DPS of a scout because scouts just do dps (especially rangers) whereas wardens heal first, dps second. You don't have to worry about any stat except your primary stat (wis for priest, agi for scouts, str for tanks and int for mages), and stamina. The primary stat improves everything you do. Best way to increase dps is to get items with multiattack and crit chance. You want to aim for 100% crit chance and as much multiattack as possible (soft cap is 600). No class is the best at surviving and dps. It's a trade off. The better you are at surviving (tanking), the less damage you do, generally. Scouts and mages do high dps but get hit easily.

By hunter do you mean ranger? Wardens don't have the defensive skills of a tank but you can just keep throwing in your healing spells between melee attacks to stay alive. I find my warden is quite difficult to get killed. Of course he won't do the DPS of a scout because scouts just do dps (especially rangers) whereas wardens heal first, dps second. You don't have to worry about any stat except your primary stat (wis for priest, agi for scouts, str for tanks and int for mages), and stamina. The primary stat improves everything you do. Best way to increase dps is to get items with multiattack and crit chance. You want to aim for 100% crit chance and as much multiattack as possible (soft cap is 600). No class is the best at surviving and dps. It's a trade off. The better you are at surviving (tanking), the less damage you do, generally. Scouts and mages do high dps but get hit easily.

Yes she is a ranger fae...

It's true the guard should do less damage but he is squishy too and has no survivabilty...1 heal that is only useable every 3 min or something stupid like that and doesn't heal enough to matter anyway (kinda like a healing potion). Like my guard on LOTR could take many hits and survive and did do a bit of damage not as much as dps but enough to do well. My tank on WoW (Pally) did mucho damage and could take a beating...This game just seems to make the guard horrible. He was my first character and I thought I'd learn the game with that char but found out the hard way he was horrid for solo play.

My ranger has about 30% crit chance I think...and there is another crit stat that is lower. I know she isn't up to speed on her stat but that's just my point she does great even in crapola gear. I have almost every crafter and every 10 levels I craft her gear to keep her at least partially up to date...and replace it with legend or fable things I find in chests.

I was wondering about all those stats...multi-attack, attack speed, ability modifier...wow I never know what I would rather have that what...I was assuming multi-attack would be very important...but worth throwing away for more agility or faster attack speed? Not much detail on that info without some serious research...which I had planned on doing once I got into the 90's and was finally done upgrading my armor...

Also...Something that annoys me to death is when I raise my spells keep changing so my expert skills have moved back down to apprentice...I'm to the point now of not wanting to waste my resources making upgrade books anymore...it's quite expensive...Wish they would just make 1 level of things and let it go...there's gotta be a better way...

Thanks for all the info though! I also appreciate the constructive info here...I admit I am a complete newb in all ways of adventuring as I am mainly a crafter.

The blue stats (Multi-Attack, Haste, DPS, Cast Speed, Reuse speeds, +/- Hate, Accuracy, Strikethrough ect...) are a little bit more complex and usefullness differs from class to class. Can always PM me if you want to know more about this and as to what is important for what class you which to know about.

Through all my characters that I've solo'd up to 92 in this game, the Conjuror was my favorite. The pet and abilities given made it extremely easy to solo without a merc at all. Necromancers should be just as easy to solo with (but i've never played one). I primarily only upgraded 2 spells on my conjuror while leveling. The pet itself, and the pet heal spell.

Guardians (which is now my main for grouping/raiding) is horrible to solo with, I must agree with you on that. Their DPS is horrible. But guardians are meant for groups/raiding and they shine in that category of being a superb tank. Some might try to tell you otherwise, but my groups and raids can attest to the guardians skill at survival and tanking ability.

My Fury was always fun to solo with, and found it quite easy. Throw on your heal-over-time abilities and nuke away!

Shadowknights are pretty awesome soloer's. They can life tap, AoE like a god, and feign death if they get into trouble.

Beastlords are an entirely different story... they are just overpowered in every aspect. So overpowered I found that leveling mine wasn't much fun... all you do is go around 1 shotting everything...

And yes, for a ranger, Multi-Attack is super important. I'd throw away any stat to have more Multi-Attack. (only up to 600 though) It will make a bigger difference at lower levels (and higher actually) than any of the other stats (I.E. Haste, DPS)

The blue stats (Multi-Attack, Haste, DPS, Cast Speed, Reuse speeds, +/- Hate, Accuracy, Strikethrough ect...) are a little bit more complex and usefullness differs from class to class. Can always PM me if you want to know more about this and as to what is important for what class you which to know about.

Through all my characters that I've solo'd up to 92 in this game, the Conjuror was my favorite. The pet and abilities given made it extremely easy to solo without a merc at all. Necromancers should be just as easy to solo with (but i've never played one). I primarily only upgraded 2 spells on my conjuror while leveling. The pet itself, and the pet heal spell.

Guardians (which is now my main for grouping/raiding) is horrible to solo with, I must agree with you on that. Their DPS is horrible. But guardians are meant for groups/raiding and they shine in that category of being a superb tank. Some might try to tell you otherwise, but my groups and raids can attest to the guardians skill at survival and tanking ability.

My Fury was always fun to solo with, and found it quite easy. Throw on your heal-over-time abilities and nuke away!

Shadowknights are pretty awesome soloer's. They can life tap, AoE like a god, and feign death if they get into trouble.

Beastlords are an entirely different story... they are just overpowered in every aspect. So overpowered I found that leveling mine wasn't much fun... all you do is go around 1 shotting everything...

And yes, for a ranger, Multi-Attack is super important. I'd throw away any stat to have more Multi-Attack. (only up to 600 though) It will make a bigger difference at lower levels (and higher actually) than any of the other stats (I.E. Haste, DPS)

So sad...I don't mind complexity in choosing attributes. I even liked games that allow you to add points into them every level...but only 2 that you have no control over outside of armor is pretty dummed down...But since they have all these other complex additions to armors I guess it's somewhat challenging in that aspect. I will focus on multiattack...was sure I needed it just didn't know it was more important that agility...I notice that armor I'm getting in the 70's has less agility than the armor I already had on, so there must be some other vital stats that are more important.

!1 question I keep forgetting to ask...which arrows are best? I have been making the Field Point as I heard on these forums they are most effective...but am I short changing my damage?

Yes so we agree...guardians are not easy to solo. I didn't have the patience to bring him past 34 so I just let him cook for now. I will work him later maybe hehe...

Well I hate to tell you this but beastlord sounds like my kind of char hahaha I love being able to blow thru mobs. I hate dying really it's the thing that annoys me most when I can't finish a battle myself. I will end up just dropping it and never doing it if I die too many times...sad I know.

I will mess around on my shadowknight more once I finish having fun on my ranger. Yep I can see he is good but maybe I'm missing something because I didn't notice he had alot of crowd control abilities compared to my ranger...And I was just noticing some of those spells at the end of my rotation heal a bit...so maybe it's my rotation...

I think i have a level 10 conjuror who I hated so bad I quit playing...but that's not much of a chance...his elemental wasn't helping at all. I refuse to pull a merc before level 20 because I want to learn my character. I may have to get back on him and give him another chance. I am not a huge fan of using a creature to survive though. I prefer to be my own fighter. I only use mercs so that I can play 5-10 levels above myself really...and for speed hehe.

Field point is best, the hit bonus outweighs the lower damage. FYI, crit bonus increases the amount you crit for on all attacks. Potency increases combat arts (CAs) and spells only. Ability modifier also works like potency but is not as important. As a ranger, crit chance and multiattack is the most important, followed by crit bonus. Crit bonus is useless if you don't crit, so ensuring you crit 100% of the time is important.

I was sitting here trying to figure out what class you meant by 'hunter' since there is no hunter class in EQ2. Someone asked if you were enjoying your ranger so I assume that's what you meant, especially with the follow up question about arrows.

So I'll put in a plug for beastlord.

Many people find beastlord a lot of fun to play. It's the new addition to EQ2 (only class added since launch) and can run as either a DPS or support class although usually DPS. Many people I know who've tried one have said they're fun so it's not just me.

They're not as survivable as the fighter classes (bruiser, shadowknight, etc.) but they can do fine against solo mobs and some heroics. As they're a chain scout class I'm guessing they're comparable to rangers in survivability. Starting about level 17 their dps is always good for their level and at some levels it's really good.

They're what's known as a tier 1 DPS class meaning they should do really really good DPS.

They do require you always have a pet up to accomplish anything. However, beastlord pets (called warders) are interesting in and of themselves.

So sad...I don't mind complexity in choosing attributes. I even liked games that allow you to add points into them every level...but only 2 that you have no control over outside of armor is pretty dummed down...But since they have all these other complex additions to armors I guess it's somewhat challenging in that aspect. I will focus on multiattack...was sure I needed it just didn't know it was more important that agility...I notice that armor I'm getting in the 70's has less agility than the armor I already had on, so there must be some other vital stats that are more important.

!1 question I keep forgetting to ask...which arrows are best? I have been making the Field Point as I heard on these forums they are most effective...but am I short changing my damage?

Yes so we agree...guardians are not easy to solo. I didn't have the patience to bring him past 34 so I just let him cook for now. I will work him later maybe hehe...

Well I hate to tell you this but beastlord sounds like my kind of char hahaha I love being able to blow thru mobs. I hate dying really it's the thing that annoys me most when I can't finish a battle myself. I will end up just dropping it and never doing it if I die too many times...sad I know.

I will mess around on my shadowknight more once I finish having fun on my ranger. Yep I can see he is good but maybe I'm missing something because I didn't notice he had alot of crowd control abilities compared to my ranger...And I was just noticing some of those spells at the end of my rotation heal a bit...so maybe it's my rotation...

I think i have a level 10 conjuror who I hated so bad I quit playing...but that's not much of a chance...his elemental wasn't helping at all. I refuse to pull a merc before level 20 because I want to learn my character. I may have to get back on him and give him another chance. I am not a huge fan of using a creature to survive though. I prefer to be my own fighter. I only use mercs so that I can play 5-10 levels above myself really...and for speed hehe.

Thanks so much for all the info. This really helps alot.

If you don't like having a creature do your fighting for you, then you may find it frustrating to work with a beastlord. They are a fun class to play for many, but the beeastlord has only a few non-warder abilities, so working in conjuction with the warder (pet) is critical. It does, however, mean that you won't have to upgrade as many abilities, since you don't receive one every level, but there's also a different mechanic used to get higher level pets. You have to fight your pets target, WHILE your pet is showing a mob weakness, once you hit level 30+, prior to that, the pet doesn't level up ranks. Ranks are the indicator of your pets level, like adept, expert, and master.

There are several conjurors who decide to never go with the tank pet, as well as necros who follow the same setup. What they decide on is a dps pet, usually the fire pet. The pet, if upgraded, is generally going to help do so much damage, that they can generally kill the mob before the mob kills the player (and maybe the pet survives as well, heh). So you might want to change your setup so that you use the fire pet instead, and let them kill the mob fast, rather than let a tank pet just sit there while you do all the hard work. It works even better if you have a decent tank merc out, but might be easy enough without.

Sk have a permanent lifetap, called reaver. It's an aa ender, but all you need to do is look for it. Once you find it, put aa into wherever you need in order to get that. It's THE ability every sk needs, because it turns all of your attacks into small lifetaps, allowing you much greater survivability. There's tons of other ways to increase your lifetap abilities as well, but that's just the absolute minimum that a sk needs, otherwise it's just not gonna be as easy to work with. Sk tanks don't have the taunts that some other tanks have, but they can put out decent aoe damage and survive massive pulls really well. Sk shine best when they pull a huge room full of white and yellow mobs, and just sit there and aoe them to death while self-healing from the lifetaps.

Also, to help others here in the forums, it's best if you use the class name to ask questions, because to me, a hunter was actually closest to the beastlord, not the ranger. I honestly thought that was the class you were talking about, at first.

Also...Something that annoys me to death is when I raise my spells keep changing so my expert skills have moved back down to apprentice...I'm to the point now of not wanting to waste my resources making upgrade books anymore...it's quite expensive...Wish they would just make 1 level of things and let it go...there's gotta be a better way...

I haven't bought a single adept ever. I almost never scribe them (too valuble to sell to transmuters) and if you have crafters journeyman is nearly as good as adepts anyway and expert if you have the rares are better and can be upgraded to master if you have time via the researcher. If you don't have the rares, just go with the journeyman until you do or have the money to pay for it (something else I actually don't ever do either, but I don't mind harvesting like some people do).

If you are leveling fast, it really doesn't make much sense to spend a lot of money on spell upgrades. If you are taking your time, take time to harvest some rares & research your main spells to master.

The thing to remember about Eq2 is a lot of the classes start off very weak and then become much stronger while some are stronger in the begining but are weaker in the end. Most players make use of the betrayal system to level a class that is strong in the beginning and then betray the other version.

You mentioned a guardian but few players levels a guard from 1-92 as a guardian. Most will start as a Berserker and then betray to Guardian after they reach the level cap.

I personally could never betray. By the time my toons are in the late 70s I'm far too attached to it to change classes. Take my zerker for example. I always had in the back of my mind I could betray to a guard if I wanted. But after playing him through his myth buff, etc, I'd rather roll a another toon than loose my current class defining abilities.

Field point is best, the hit bonus outweighs the lower damage. FYI, crit bonus increases the amount you crit for on all attacks. Potency increases combat arts (CAs) and spells only. Ability modifier also works like potency but is not as important. As a ranger, crit chance and multiattack is the most important, followed by crit bonus. Crit bonus is useless if you don't crit, so ensuring you crit 100% of the time is important.

Oh thanks for that info. I'm glad I switched to the field point arrows because I was using broadhead up to level 50 because of the damage. I think I have about 30% crit chance...wow I think I need to find some new armor hehe.

I was sitting here trying to figure out what class you meant by 'hunter' since there is no hunter class in EQ2. Someone asked if you were enjoying your ranger so I assume that's what you meant, especially with the follow up question about arrows.

So I'll put in a plug for beastlord.

Many people find beastlord a lot of fun to play. It's the new addition to EQ2 (only class added since launch) and can run as either a DPS or support class although usually DPS. Many people I know who've tried one have said they're fun so it's not just me.

They're not as survivable as the fighter classes (bruiser, shadowknight, etc.) but they can do fine against solo mobs and some heroics. As they're a chain scout class I'm guessing they're comparable to rangers in survivability. Starting about level 17 their dps is always good for their level and at some levels it's really good.

They're what's known as a tier 1 DPS class meaning they should do really really good DPS.

They do require you always have a pet up to accomplish anything. However, beastlord pets (called warders) are interesting in and of themselves.

I think the reason I didn't consider a beastlord was because it sounded like a pet wielding class which is not usually how I enjoy playing. But from what I've heard they are high dps so I think I will need to try one out.

So sad...I don't mind complexity in choosing attributes. I even liked games that allow you to add points into them every level...but only 2 that you have no control over outside of armor is pretty dummed down...But since they have all these other complex additions to armors I guess it's somewhat challenging in that aspect. I will focus on multiattack...was sure I needed it just didn't know it was more important that agility...I notice that armor I'm getting in the 70's has less agility than the armor I already had on, so there must be some other vital stats that are more important.

!1 question I keep forgetting to ask...which arrows are best? I have been making the Field Point as I heard on these forums they are most effective...but am I short changing my damage?

Yes so we agree...guardians are not easy to solo. I didn't have the patience to bring him past 34 so I just let him cook for now. I will work him later maybe hehe...

Well I hate to tell you this but beastlord sounds like my kind of char hahaha I love being able to blow thru mobs. I hate dying really it's the thing that annoys me most when I can't finish a battle myself. I will end up just dropping it and never doing it if I die too many times...sad I know.

I will mess around on my shadowknight more once I finish having fun on my ranger. Yep I can see he is good but maybe I'm missing something because I didn't notice he had alot of crowd control abilities compared to my ranger...And I was just noticing some of those spells at the end of my rotation heal a bit...so maybe it's my rotation...

I think i have a level 10 conjuror who I hated so bad I quit playing...but that's not much of a chance...his elemental wasn't helping at all. I refuse to pull a merc before level 20 because I want to learn my character. I may have to get back on him and give him another chance. I am not a huge fan of using a creature to survive though. I prefer to be my own fighter. I only use mercs so that I can play 5-10 levels above myself really...and for speed hehe.

Thanks so much for all the info. This really helps alot.

If you don't like having a creature do your fighting for you, then you may find it frustrating to work with a beastlord. They are a fun class to play for many, but the beeastlord has only a few non-warder abilities, so working in conjuction with the warder (pet) is critical. It does, however, mean that you won't have to upgrade as many abilities, since you don't receive one every level, but there's also a different mechanic used to get higher level pets. You have to fight your pets target, WHILE your pet is showing a mob weakness, once you hit level 30+, prior to that, the pet doesn't level up ranks. Ranks are the indicator of your pets level, like adept, expert, and master.

There are several conjurors who decide to never go with the tank pet, as well as necros who follow the same setup. What they decide on is a dps pet, usually the fire pet. The pet, if upgraded, is generally going to help do so much damage, that they can generally kill the mob before the mob kills the player (and maybe the pet survives as well, heh). So you might want to change your setup so that you use the fire pet instead, and let them kill the mob fast, rather than let a tank pet just sit there while you do all the hard work. It works even better if you have a decent tank merc out, but might be easy enough without.

Sk have a permanent lifetap, called reaver. It's an aa ender, but all you need to do is look for it. Once you find it, put aa into wherever you need in order to get that. It's THE ability every sk needs, because it turns all of your attacks into small lifetaps, allowing you much greater survivability. There's tons of other ways to increase your lifetap abilities as well, but that's just the absolute minimum that a sk needs, otherwise it's just not gonna be as easy to work with. Sk tanks don't have the taunts that some other tanks have, but they can put out decent aoe damage and survive massive pulls really well. Sk shine best when they pull a huge room full of white and yellow mobs, and just sit there and aoe them to death while self-healing from the lifetaps.

Also, to help others here in the forums, it's best if you use the class name to ask questions, because to me, a hunter was actually closest to the beastlord, not the ranger. I honestly thought that was the class you were talking about, at first.

Thanks for the info here. I was guessing my sk would get some more survivability and damage later. I will keep an eye out for reaver.

Sorry about the confusion on using the term 'hunter' it's just what the bowman has always been called in everything I played so I didn't distinguish...and I have alot of classes yet to try out so didn't realize they had so many similar classes in this game...

Also...Something that annoys me to death is when I raise my spells keep changing so my expert skills have moved back down to apprentice...I'm to the point now of not wanting to waste my resources making upgrade books anymore...it's quite expensive...Wish they would just make 1 level of things and let it go...there's gotta be a better way...

I haven't bought a single adept ever. I almost never scribe them (too valuble to sell to transmuters) and if you have crafters journeyman is nearly as good as adepts anyway and expert if you have the rares are better and can be upgraded to master if you have time via the researcher. If you don't have the rares, just go with the journeyman until you do or have the money to pay for it (something else I actually don't ever do either, but I don't mind harvesting like some people do).

If you are leveling fast, it really doesn't make much sense to spend a lot of money on spell upgrades. If you are taking your time, take time to harvest some rares & research your main spells to master.

That's really good to know. I think I got a little crazy with my warden and crafted expert upgrades to like 8 spells because I assumed (maybe a big mistake) that by 86 he will be done with those spells and not have them changed up on him the next few raises...

From now on I will just wait till last tier to expert things and just cope with journeyman...But I was just noticing that the difference in damage seemed quite a bit higher from apprentice to expert so hence...thought it would help my underdamage warden to do more dps...I will have to look at my scribes apprentice training..I didn't notice there were spells to research...I was thinking it was charms or something else irrelevant to his career (really annoys me that my research spells are not relevant to my career)

The thing to remember about Eq2 is a lot of the classes start off very weak and then become much stronger while some are stronger in the begining but are weaker in the end. Most players make use of the betrayal system to level a class that is strong in the beginning and then betray the other version.

You mentioned a guardian but few players levels a guard from 1-92 as a guardian. Most will start as a Berserker and then betray to Guardian after they reach the level cap.

Ah, didn't realize betrayal changed classes...I was going to betray my sk ogre because I wanted a good alignment so that I could access quenos mercs...but then realized that at level 23 it was too late...(have to do before 20?)

I guess betraying isn't just about good and evil? haha...

Also, I hope that doesn't mean my ranger will become weaker at high levels? I have heard alot of words against the ranger that's why I was surprised how much I like mine thus far...As I said before she rarely needs a merc...she can take hits and do huge dps.

The blue stats (Multi-Attack, Haste, DPS, Cast Speed, Reuse speeds, +/- Hate, Accuracy, Strikethrough ect...) are a little bit more complex and usefullness differs from class to class. Can always PM me if you want to know more about this and as to what is important for what class you which to know about.

Through all my characters that I've solo'd up to 92 in this game, the Conjuror was my favorite. The pet and abilities given made it extremely easy to solo without a merc at all. Necromancers should be just as easy to solo with (but i've never played one). I primarily only upgraded 2 spells on my conjuror while leveling. The pet itself, and the pet heal spell.

Guardians (which is now my main for grouping/raiding) is horrible to solo with, I must agree with you on that. Their DPS is horrible. But guardians are meant for groups/raiding and they shine in that category of being a superb tank. Some might try to tell you otherwise, but my groups and raids can attest to the guardians skill at survival and tanking ability.

My Fury was always fun to solo with, and found it quite easy. Throw on your heal-over-time abilities and nuke away!

Shadowknights are pretty awesome soloer's. They can life tap, AoE like a god, and feign death if they get into trouble.

Beastlords are an entirely different story... they are just overpowered in every aspect. So overpowered I found that leveling mine wasn't much fun... all you do is go around 1 shotting everything...

And yes, for a ranger, Multi-Attack is super important. I'd throw away any stat to have more Multi-Attack. (only up to 600 though) It will make a bigger difference at lower levels (and higher actually) than any of the other stats (I.E. Haste, DPS)

So sad...I don't mind complexity in choosing attributes. I even liked games that allow you to add points into them every level...but only 2 that you have no control over outside of armor is pretty dummed down...But since they have all these other complex additions to armors I guess it's somewhat challenging in that aspect. I will focus on multiattack...was sure I needed it just didn't know it was more important that agility...I notice that armor I'm getting in the 70's has less agility than the armor I already had on, so there must be some other vital stats that are more important.

!1 question I keep forgetting to ask...which arrows are best? I have been making the Field Point as I heard on these forums they are most effective...but am I short changing my damage?

Yes so we agree...guardians are not easy to solo. I didn't have the patience to bring him past 34 so I just let him cook for now. I will work him later maybe hehe...

Well I hate to tell you this but beastlord sounds like my kind of char hahaha I love being able to blow thru mobs. I hate dying really it's the thing that annoys me most when I can't finish a battle myself. I will end up just dropping it and never doing it if I die too many times...sad I know.

I will mess around on my shadowknight more once I finish having fun on my ranger. Yep I can see he is good but maybe I'm missing something because I didn't notice he had alot of crowd control abilities compared to my ranger...And I was just noticing some of those spells at the end of my rotation heal a bit...so maybe it's my rotation...

I think i have a level 10 conjuror who I hated so bad I quit playing...but that's not much of a chance...his elemental wasn't helping at all. I refuse to pull a merc before level 20 because I want to learn my character. I may have to get back on him and give him another chance. I am not a huge fan of using a creature to survive though. I prefer to be my own fighter. I only use mercs so that I can play 5-10 levels above myself really...and for speed hehe.

Thanks so much for all the info. This really helps alot.

per your question about Arrows Fieldpoint make sure you are hitting as often as you can. Get your damage from the stats on other things. If you aren't hitting you aren't doing damage is what my Ranger says

oh and fun to play. I have Ranger, Warlock, Fury(all at 92), Illy(85), Monk(66) Conji(in her 50s I think), Inquistor(in 50s also I think betrayed from Templar to be able to solo easier) Shadowknight(50s haven't had a chance to try her out much anymore. ) Beastlord(in her 30s soon to be 40) warden(27 I think) swashie(locked at 25 to experience as much of the game I missed as possible) Necro(25 only because i'ave been having to concentrate on my warlock and illy for raid purposes), warden high 20s locked for hte most part 92 weaponsmith) wizard(25 also 92 tradeskill sage this time may be unlocking her in the near future though) Coercer(25 haven't played him much I do like my Illy better.) and my newest troubie(only 25 for now). which do I find the funnest. Which ever one I decide to play today or any day I have fun with them for various reasons conji and necro getting my tank pets out to have a little adventure, Illy I love grouping and want to have a class that will help the group same with my healers, for dps can't beat my Ranger or warlock, my Monk and swashie well if I can't find a group they solo very well and with a warden type merc for the Monk and a Pally for the swashie I can pretty much burn through anything, the Beast lord is new still trying to get the hang of playing her but I do love adventuring with her. Actually my Ranger is my main toon even though I don't raid with her much anymore and use my warlock as my main raid toon. and I loved my Monk the day I created her got to 20 in one day and never looked at my sk or any other tank since or not until i went to test server and decided to see how a brusier would do like him also may get an extra slot to roll him on live not sure whether I want to or not might decide to spend some time on Test instead of live servers the one class i did not enjoy was my guardian whom I deleted at level 50 just couldnt get the hang of being a MT I might revisit the class though depends on a number of factors. oh did I mention i'm an altaholic?

What it boils down to is the funnest class to play is the one you want to play. I always keep my Ranger end level in all her classes. AAs and skills right now she is 92/92/320 450/450 or what ever the level is for tinkering and adorning. since she is still my favorite of all my toons.

The blue stats (Multi-Attack, Haste, DPS, Cast Speed, Reuse speeds, +/- Hate, Accuracy, Strikethrough ect...) are a little bit more complex and usefullness differs from class to class. Can always PM me if you want to know more about this and as to what is important for what class you which to know about.

Through all my characters that I've solo'd up to 92 in this game, the Conjuror was my favorite. The pet and abilities given made it extremely easy to solo without a merc at all. Necromancers should be just as easy to solo with (but i've never played one). I primarily only upgraded 2 spells on my conjuror while leveling. The pet itself, and the pet heal spell.

Guardians (which is now my main for grouping/raiding) is horrible to solo with, I must agree with you on that. Their DPS is horrible. But guardians are meant for groups/raiding and they shine in that category of being a superb tank. Some might try to tell you otherwise, but my groups and raids can attest to the guardians skill at survival and tanking ability.

My Fury was always fun to solo with, and found it quite easy. Throw on your heal-over-time abilities and nuke away!

Shadowknights are pretty awesome soloer's. They can life tap, AoE like a god, and feign death if they get into trouble.

Beastlords are an entirely different story... they are just overpowered in every aspect. So overpowered I found that leveling mine wasn't much fun... all you do is go around 1 shotting everything...

And yes, for a ranger, Multi-Attack is super important. I'd throw away any stat to have more Multi-Attack. (only up to 600 though) It will make a bigger difference at lower levels (and higher actually) than any of the other stats (I.E. Haste, DPS)

So sad...I don't mind complexity in choosing attributes. I even liked games that allow you to add points into them every level...but only 2 that you have no control over outside of armor is pretty dummed down...But since they have all these other complex additions to armors I guess it's somewhat challenging in that aspect. I will focus on multiattack...was sure I needed it just didn't know it was more important that agility...I notice that armor I'm getting in the 70's has less agility than the armor I already had on, so there must be some other vital stats that are more important.

!1 question I keep forgetting to ask...which arrows are best? I have been making the Field Point as I heard on these forums they are most effective...but am I short changing my damage?

Yes so we agree...guardians are not easy to solo. I didn't have the patience to bring him past 34 so I just let him cook for now. I will work him later maybe hehe...

Well I hate to tell you this but beastlord sounds like my kind of char hahaha I love being able to blow thru mobs. I hate dying really it's the thing that annoys me most when I can't finish a battle myself. I will end up just dropping it and never doing it if I die too many times...sad I know.

I will mess around on my shadowknight more once I finish having fun on my ranger. Yep I can see he is good but maybe I'm missing something because I didn't notice he had alot of crowd control abilities compared to my ranger...And I was just noticing some of those spells at the end of my rotation heal a bit...so maybe it's my rotation...

I think i have a level 10 conjuror who I hated so bad I quit playing...but that's not much of a chance...his elemental wasn't helping at all. I refuse to pull a merc before level 20 because I want to learn my character. I may have to get back on him and give him another chance. I am not a huge fan of using a creature to survive though. I prefer to be my own fighter. I only use mercs so that I can play 5-10 levels above myself really...and for speed hehe.

Thanks so much for all the info. This really helps alot.

per your question about Arrows Fieldpoint make sure you are hitting as often as you can. Get your damage from the stats on other things. If you aren't hitting you aren't doing damage is what my Ranger says

Good point. I will just use field points from now on. So far my ammo useage isn't out of hand. If I get a bunch more hit all attacks like stream of arrows it may get worse, but worth it yay I love those spells hehe.

The thing to remember about Eq2 is a lot of the classes start off very weak and then become much stronger while some are stronger in the begining but are weaker in the end. Most players make use of the betrayal system to level a class that is strong in the beginning and then betray the other version.

You mentioned a guardian but few players levels a guard from 1-92 as a guardian. Most will start as a Berserker and then betray to Guardian after they reach the level cap.

Ah, didn't realize betrayal changed classes...I was going to betray my sk ogre because I wanted a good alignment so that I could access quenos mercs...but then realized that at level 23 it was too late...(have to do before 20?)

I guess betraying isn't just about good and evil? haha...

Also, I hope that doesn't mean my ranger will become weaker at high levels? I have heard alot of words against the ranger that's why I was surprised how much I like mine thus far...As I said before she rarely needs a merc...she can take hits and do huge dps.

you can betray at any level and class change depends on whether th pairs are neutral or good/evil based. if class is neutral youcan stay the same class if class is good/evil when you betray to the other side you have to switch to the class that side allows.

oh and it may take some doing but you can sneak around and get the mercs from teh opposing side. that is why my Ranger who is qeynos has an inq instead of templar merc. she snuck into freeport to get it of course she was 92 so not to hard against the normal heroric mobs and no epic are between teh sewer and inn where you find the mercs haven't tried it the other way yet on my warlock hmm should do that.

My main is an Assassin, the melee pair to the Ranger and my #2 is a Shadowknight. Both are level 92 - 320AA, but I have far better gear on my Assassin than I do on my Shadowknight. Even though this is the case, my Shadowknight can get more done in the game than the Assassin. The only reason my Shadowknight is my #2 is that I've done a lot in the game with my Assassin and I'm very attached to the character. The reason you might not realize your Shadowknight will be actually better than your Ranger is that you don't have all of the AA survivability buffs yet and really just have no idea as to how to play a tank yet. By level 80, if you max out AAs and pick the right ones, there will be no comparison between a Ranger and a Shadowknight, even a healer merc can't make up the difference for the Ranger.

That's really good to know. I think I got a little crazy with my warden and crafted expert upgrades to like 8 spells because I assumed (maybe a big mistake) that by 86 he will be done with those spells and not have them changed up on him the next few raises...

From now on I will just wait till last tier to expert things and just cope with journeyman...But I was just noticing that the difference in damage seemed quite a bit higher from apprentice to expert so hence...thought it would help my underdamage warden to do more dps...I will have to look at my scribes apprentice training..I didn't notice there were spells to research...I was thinking it was charms or something else irrelevant to his career (really annoys me that my research spells are not relevant to my career)

Thanks so much for this info.

Now I do not suggest to ever run with just apprentices =) they are bare bones & get resisted too often. Tradeskill apprentices just do crafting recipes. I was refering to researching, in your knowledge tab where your spells are, research is a button up there, gives a full list of all your spells you could possibly upgrade via that method. It's mostly used to get masters without having to wait for them to drop or paying through the nose for them. It can take a long time at higher levels but if you are short on cash, it's a good way to get experts mastered.

Also, you did say you were leveling things slowly, if you are doing that do harvesting as you go, especially if you are crafting as well. I ...have a crafting & harvesting problem and found that just running quests in SF/Withered Lands harvesting things I ran across I got quite a few rares. They weren't always the ones I want, but if one was so inclined they could always sell the other rares for cash to buy ones you need.

Once you are in the 80s you should be getting everything to expert due to the difficulty of the content at that level (focusing on your most important spells first & leaving others until last, everyclass has some spells that get used almost never). I suppose if you solo all the time it wouldn't matter as much, but if you do any grouping at all it's well worth it.

Also, in the current game with the level cap at 92 level 82 will have the last spell that will be getting an upgrade as you level up (until the level cap raises).

By going melee with your warden you would also eliminate the need to spend lots on upgrades for the spell versions of the melee attacks you get. That would be what? Four rares that could be spent on something else? If you are low on cash, selling shinies, adepts & such helps. If you have a carp (and it sounds like you do) sell building blocks & tiles.

All I can say is this: if you think Troubies don't do enough damage, or that they can't take a hit, then you're doing something seriously wrong. I solo'd 90 freekin' levels on mine before even hiring a mercenary.

All I can say is this: if you think Troubies don't do enough damage, or that they can't take a hit, then you're doing something seriously wrong. I solo'd 90 freekin' levels on mine before even hiring a mercenary.

IMO, there is no class that's more fun than Troubador.

oooh I'd love to see what you've specked you AAs at sounds like youk now what you are doing. how is your Troub in a group or raid?

The thing to remember about Eq2 is a lot of the classes start off very weak and then become much stronger while some are stronger in the begining but are weaker in the end. Most players make use of the betrayal system to level a class that is strong in the beginning and then betray the other version.

You mentioned a guardian but few players levels a guard from 1-92 as a guardian. Most will start as a Berserker and then betray to Guardian after they reach the level cap.

Ah, didn't realize betrayal changed classes...I was going to betray my sk ogre because I wanted a good alignment so that I could access quenos mercs...but then realized that at level 23 it was too late...(have to do before 20?)

I guess betraying isn't just about good and evil? haha...

Also, I hope that doesn't mean my ranger will become weaker at high levels? I have heard alot of words against the ranger that's why I was surprised how much I like mine thus far...As I said before she rarely needs a merc...she can take hits and do huge dps.

The old rule that you can't betray after level 20 was done away with. Nowadays you can betray right up to max level. Be warned that besides changing classes, all your abilities might be set to the lowest level. I don't have tons of experience with betrayal, but I think that only happens nowadays if you switch classes. Some classes are neither good nor evil i.e. both good and evil players can play them so you don't HAVE to switch classes in those cases. However, if you betray a shadowknight to good it WILL become a paladin. There is no such thing as a good shadowknight or an evil paladin in EQ2.

If you do betray and switch classes, the game will now remember your old spells. If you betray back to your original class they'll be available at the level you had them before. So they're not truly lost anymore.

Finally, beastlord is the only class not paired with another class. If you betray a beastlord it always stays a beastlord. You don't even get the option to change classes.

Also...Something that annoys me to death is when I raise my spells keep changing so my expert skills have moved back down to apprentice...I'm to the point now of not wanting to waste my resources making upgrade books anymore...it's quite expensive...Wish they would just make 1 level of things and let it go...there's gotta be a better way...

Thanks for all the info though! I also appreciate the constructive info here...I admit I am a complete newb in all ways of adventuring as I am mainly a crafter.

I can't find a word for how much I agree! I am afraid to buy (can't craft) them spell books or even waste re search time and they will go all the way back to apprentice after they are upgraded, this system really is discouraging!

Oh and I never knew that by betraying, you change class, since I am an evil Guardian what will I change too?